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A bond deal served up by the maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey pushed high-grade corporate debt issuance yesterday to an annual record of $1.025 trillion.

Spirits company Brown-Forman and four other borrowers sold a combined $3.75bn, being the latest companies to jump on low yields and voracious investor appetite for corporate bonds.

Like a number of other companies to recently hit the debt markets, Brown-Forman raised the cash in order to give it to shareholders via a dividend that will be squeezed in before taxes are set to rise in 2013.

"We generally view large one time shareholder distributions as unfavourable to bondholders, but Brown-Forman's strong cash flows, good liquidity and low leverage provide sufficient cushion for this distribution at this time," said Moody's Investors Service in its commentary on the bonds.

Syndicate desks that arrange new deals are expecting another $5bn to $10bn of debt to be issued later this week. The prior record, set in 2009, was $1.024 trillion, according to data provider Dealogic.

The high-grade record follows one set in the "junk" market in October. As of yesterday, debt deals from below investment grade, or junk-rated, companies, totaled $337bn and now surpass the 2010 record by some $50bn, Dealogic data show.

Bankers at Barclays P pointed out that debt issuance was steady all year long in what they characterised as a "fantastic financing environment." In the previous few years, unexpected events caused the new deal market to seize up, forcing borrowers to jump in all at once before the short windows closed. This year there was less investor fear, and companies were able to take advantage of low yields every month.

"That has a big impact on why we've had record volumes," Mark Bamford, Barclays's head of global fixed income syndicate, said at a press conference yesterday morning.

Barclays estimated 81% of the year's debt has been for general purposes and refinancing.

Last Thursday, for instance, Cliffs Natural Resources sold $500m of bonds to raise cash and pay down debts due in 2013 and 2015.

"We're being opportunistic to strengthen our balance sheet," said Terry Paradie, chief financial officer at Cliffs, on Thursday. "It's a low interest rate environment, and we're going to have considerable savings on that debt."

Cliffs's five-year bond, which grew from $350m after it received strong demand, was priced to yield 4.14%, or roughly half the 8.1% annual yield the company pays on its stock dividend.

"It's the fifth year of a refinancing trend with a lot of supply," he said. "Could there be a sixth year? Absolutely."

The record 2012 issuance was all the more significant considering financial institutions sold only roughly $320bn of bonds, versus $453bn in 2009.

"Bank balance sheets are awash in liquidity," said Tony Smith, senior director of Moody's Analytics. "What banks are seeking is more loans, not more funding."

Brown-Forman's deal, its largest in 12 years of data and its first in two years, included five-, 10- and 30-year bonds offering yields from 1.06% to 3.751%.

Other big borrowers yesterday included Simon Property, which priced $1.25bn in five- and 10-year bonds yielding between 1.564% and 2.813%. AutoDesk sold $750m of five- and 10-year debt, yielding between 2.165% and 3.616%.